Conventional edge-wound technology may use a flat-wire wound onto a bobbin. The wide edge may be placed vertically on a bobbin in order to obtain single layer design with a maximum number of turns. If only one layer is wound, this may improve the heat transfer to the environment or to a heat sink. A larger ratio between a wide edge and a narrow edge may result in increased power density of the device. However, there may be problems in fabricating a wire with such a high ratio of these dimensions. For example, the higher the ratio, the more difficult it may be to wind the wire around a rectangular bobbin.
In addition, windings may be subject to a minimal turn radius and thus, large voids between the wire and the core may occur that may result in power losses and difficulties in cooling the device.
Some of these issues may be resolved by constructing coils as stacked assemblies of electrically interconnected plates. However, fabrication of such stacked plate assemblies may require multiple fabrication steps. For example, each plate typically needs to be electrically connected to an adjacent plate at a specific connection point. Except for the connection points, surfaces of each plate may need to be electrically insulated from surfaces of adjacent plates. Thus fabrication of a coil from a stack of plates may require the performance of numerous successive and carefully controlled connection and insulation steps.
As can be seen, there is a need for a new method of creating windings around a bobbin or transformer core. More particularly, there is a need for a stacked plate winding which can be assembled without performing numerous successive electrical connection and insulation steps.